Today's Conversation

In Today’s Conversation podcast, Tish and NAE President Walter Kim discuss: How evangelicalism has shaped her piety; The importance of emphasizing global evangelicalism; How American evangelicals can be more globally minded; and What she learned about being a faithful witness in our cultural climate. Read a Portion of the Transcript Walter: As we draw to ...

Tish Harrison Warren found her home in the Anglican Church in North America many years ago. Her ministry calling and the ongoing act of Jesus’ grace led her to a special connection with believers on the other side of the world. Having a global perspective, Tish believes, can change the way all evangelicals pray, worship and think about our neighbors.

In Today's Conversation podcast, Tish and NAE President Walter Kim discuss:

How evangelicalism has shaped her piety;

The importance of emphasizing global evangelicalism;

How American evangelicals can be more globally minded; and

What she learned about being a faithful witness in our cultural climate.

Read a Portion of the Transcript

Walter: As we draw to a close, I want to point our attention to the book you have recently written, “Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work, or Watch, or Weep,” which explores themes of human vulnerability, of suffering, of God’s apparent absence. If you were to encapsulate a lesson from this book for our cultural moment — the common struggles that we have with fear and love, a desire for God’s presence and how do we find that in moments where God appears absent — what’s something from this work that you would give as a final word of encouragement or maybe even challenge for us?

Tish: Well the book is sort of looking at how do we continue to trust God when God makes no guarantee that bad things will not happen to us…. The ultimate hope of how we respond to our vulnerability — vulnerability that comes from mortality, that comes from living in a world where darkness is very real, certainly we are all feeling this right now with COVID, but also I would say our vulnerability that we sometimes feel as evangelicals, our cultural vulnerability ... — is that our hope can’t be that everything is going to work out for us. We know that that may not be true. And our hope can’t be that we are going to beat it, that we are going to get enough power or privilege to make everything go well for the church, or make everything go well for our family or our children. The hope really must be rooted in the love of God, and in the fact that in all of our suffering, God meets us in our suffering. But also we meet God; we join in the sufferings of Jesus and somehow, mysteriously, are taken up into the life of God through our suffering.

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If you enjoyed the program, please rate it on iTunes and write a brief review. That will help get the word out and raise the visibility of the show.

Relevant Resources

Read Tish's Christianity Today article, "Why I Claim the 'Global Evangelical' Label."

Read Tish's books:

"Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life"

"Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep"

Learn more and connect with Tish at TishHarrisonWarren.com.

Check out “For the Health of the Nation,” a discipleship resource for Christians on civic responsibility.

Today's Conversation is brought to you by Brotherhood Mutual.

In Today’s Conversation podcast with NAE President Walter Kim, Kaitlyn invites us to expand our understanding of spiritual formation and examine what practices may be shaping our worldview. Walter and Kaitlyn also discuss: Why spiritual formation is broader than internal work; How different generations — particularly Gen Z — approach spiritual formation and politics; What ...

Kaitlyn Schiess describes how we are all formed by the habits and practices that fill our lives. These repetitive and often unrecognized actions shape not only our relationship with God, but also our relationships with neighbors, the political choices we make, and a host of other decisions and expressions.

In Today's Conversation podcast with NAE President Walter Kim, Kaitlyn invites us to expand our understanding of spiritual formation and examine what practices may be shaping our worldview. Walter and Kaitlyn also discuss:

Why spiritual formation is broader than internal work;

How different generations — particularly Gen Z — approach spiritual formation and politics;

What false gospels the American church has embraced; and

What questions we should ask to keep false gospels and idols in check.

Read a Portion of the Transcript

Walter: What is the story that we should be immersed in? What is the gospel story in your theological imagination, in this spiritual formation, in this liturgy that you’re seeking to inculcate us in? You’ve talked really well and compellingly about the forces that would misshape us. What are some of the gospel themes or narratives or stories in your work that you would hold forth as this positive shaping of who we are?

Kaitlyn: Someone asked me recently what one passage I would go to to talk about politics. I said Genesis 1 and 2, because we tend to start so much of our political conversations, our imagination, and those kinds of liturgies in just sin. And that’s an important conversation for politics in our world, but could we start with this picture of creation made good by God, and human beings created to act as his representatives to steward creation and to build communities?

Could we go back to that language of ruling and reigning as representatives of God and then seeing that paralleled in Revelation as a picture of creation redeemed and restored? Our jobs being the same kinds of jobs: to steward and to rule and reign as God’s representatives, to take the good gifts of his creation and make things with it, to be creative. That’s one of the themes I tend to think about: this human creativity, human community building as something that is our commission from the very beginning to the very end.

Another one is a theme that I grew up in — I am so thankful for — and it was really neglected in a lot of those churches is the kingdom of God and the way that it’s described especially in the New Testament. Not just as Jesus coming on the scene and announcing the coming of the kingdom of God as this kind of ethereal, spiritual thing and we’re not really sure what it means, but as him taking care of people — restoring, redeeming, healing people. Announcing the fact that especially the marginalized and oppressed are going to be set free. Taking some of those images from the prophets and from Jesus’ ministry and being able to apply those in our world today.

We will have disagreements. There will be complicated things, and it’s not always black and white or easy to understand. And yet — at least in the traditions that I grew up in — a lot of that really powerful language for seeking flourishing human communities was missing. Even in my own ministry at the church, I’ve tried so hard to say: Could we look at some of those things? And even before we get to super interpretive questions of how we apply this, could we just sit in the beauty of some of these descriptions of what God’s intentions for human communities are?

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If you enjoyed the program, please rate it on iTunes and write a brief review. That will help get the word out and raise the visibility of the show.

Relevant Resources

Read Kaitlyn's book, The Liturgy of Politics: Spiritual Formation for the Sake of...

This podcast recording is also available in Spanish here. In his role as director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins oversees the largest supporter of biomedical research in the world. He is also a committed Christian. In Today’s Conversation podcast, you’ll hear Dr. Collins and NAE President Walter Kim discuss: The integration of ...

This podcast recording is also available in Spanish here.

Coronavirus cases continue to surge as the first round of COVID vaccines makes its way to Americans. This medication has not only brought a sense of hope, but also many questions. Is it truly safe after such a quick timetable for development? Will it actually be effective and for how long? Are there ethical issues involved in the creation of the vaccines that Christians should know about?

In his role as director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins oversees the largest supporter of biomedical research in the world. He is also a committed Christian. In Today's Conversation podcast, you'll hear Dr. Collins and NAE President Walter Kim discuss:

The integration of faith, science and health;

How vaccines actually affect the body;

The manufacturing process and ethics behind vaccinations; and

What role pastors and Christians should play during the pandemic.

Read a Portion of the Transcript

Walter: Clearly you have thought a lot about the integration of faith and science and of course health. And we have a moment in time where those issue converge in matters of life and death. How do you think Christians should approach this health crisis?

Dr. Collins: Christians down through the centuries have been faced with a challenge of what is our calling in times of trouble. We can call upon God to help us, but sometimes God calls us to be part of the solution; that’s happened down through the centuries as well. In times of plague — and this is not the first one nor will it be the last — Christians have had a tradition of not running away from the challenge but running toward it saying, "What can I do?" I think that’s what we should be doing now. It’s different because usually when you’re a Christian and you’re called to run towards something that means you kind of gather together and here’s a circumstance where gathering together happens to be the wrong thing to do because of the danger of contagion.

We are called to act, to love our neighbors in other ways than what we are used to — helping the elderly couple down the street who can’t really get out to buy their groceries to go and do that for them and leave a bag at their doorstep for instance, volunteering at the food bank or simply being a listening ear for people who have lost a loved one, who are ill, who are isolated. All of those things we can do. What we can’t do is what we love to do, which is to gather together without putting everybody at risk. Again, Christians are called in our love for our neighbors to consider all of those things.

I’m reading my Bible this morning — reading in 1 John — and I ran across these verses in 1 John, Chapter 3: “If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” That’s a pretty good calling to Christians, but the next verse, “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” Actions and in truth. That’s what I think Christians are now called to do and many are doing so. But it has been a confusing time for a lot of people trying to figure out how do I take those words and make them into something I can do that is faithful to God but that recognizes the reality of what we know, through knowledge God has given us to learn through science, about this particular COVID-19 and how can I do what needs to be done to keep other people safe and not be the next super spreader despite my good intentions of being a Christian reaching out to those in need.

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In Today’s Conversation podcast hosted by NAE President Walter Kim, you’ll hear Tim share: Why he and Jon decided to start the BibleProject; How Tim was drawn to Jesus through an outreach to skateboarders; What approach the BibleProject takes to navigate different interpretations of Scripture; and How creativity threads through Scripture and connects to our ...

Since Tim Mackie was in his 20s he has been on a mission to understand the Bible — its history, culture and language — and to help others understand the Bible. This passion led him to earn a theology degree and a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies, to serve as a pastor for several years, and eventually to start the BibleProject with co-founder Jon Collins.

In Today's Conversation podcast hosted by NAE President Walter Kim, you'll hear Tim share:

Why he and Jon decided to start the BibleProject;

How Tim was drawn to Jesus through an outreach to skateboarders;

What approach the BibleProject takes to navigate different interpretations of Scripture; and

How creativity threads through Scripture and connects to our calling as Christians.

Read a Portion of the Transcript

Walter: I’m speculating here, but I want you to draw this out. Pre-pandemic, post-pandemic, what you’re doing at the BibleProject seems like it would have been equally applicable before and after because of the medium that you have chosen to work in and through. But is that the case? Have you noticed any shift in the ways that people have engaged with your material during the pandemic?

Tim: You’re totally right. Your intuition is correct there. It wasn’t something we planned necessarily, but it just so happened the main medium and platform that we are using is both YouTube and just online delivery. We are able to give away all this content for free with no ads or no paywall or subscription payments, because from the beginning — and again this was Jon’s idea — of starting kind of a micro-Patreon model which is, "If you find the videos helpful, donate a few bucks and help us make some more.” When the number of people begins to grow, it creates a pretty stable base to be able to build an animation studio. So that is what happened over time.

What we found was in pandemic era where people are at home more and looking for more content to either learn on their own or to learn with friends/family, we’ve seen a large amount of momentum and growth in our audience and growth in the number of people who are learning about BibleProject. It’s felt like a very providential experience that we couldn’t have planned. So yes, we have noticed all of those things and are feeling really humbled that we get to be in this role where we feel like our work is more meaningful than ever, because we’re actually serving a lot more people than we were a year ago.

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Share the Love

If you enjoyed the program, please rate it on iTunes and write a brief review. That will help get the word out and raise the visibility of the show.

Relevant Resources

Watch BibleProject’s flagship series on the books of the Bible from Genesis to Acts.

Visit the BibleProject website for additional resources such as Bible studies, blogs and podcasts.

Order copies of the NAE Bible Reading Guide to help members of your church be in the Word every day.

Today's Conversation is brought to you by Christian Community Credit Union.

 

 

NAE President Walter Kim and Scott discuss: What evangelicals should believe about God’s sovereignty, regardless of who the president is; What we should think about authority, particularly if we deeply disagree with that authority; How Christians engage on political issues with society at large, especially non-Christian neighbors; and The opportunities the Church has in this ...

Our country just experienced a very close and very contentious election. In Today's Conversation podcast, Scott Sauls offers pastoral guidance on how Christians should respond to this election — or any election — and what opportunities we have to be a light for Christ in a divided nation. He grounds his advice in examples and values from the Bible.

NAE President Walter Kim and Scott discuss:

What evangelicals should believe about God's sovereignty, regardless of who the president is;

What we should think about authority, particularly if we deeply disagree with that authority;

How Christians engage on political issues with society at large, especially non-Christian neighbors; and

The opportunities the Church has in this post-election season.

Read a Portion of the Transcript

Walter: Some people in our churches are thrilled with the results of the election. And just as some are thrilled, others are devastated. There are plenty of people in between. What do you say to these groups of people? Are there different messages for the different categories? Or the same message for everyone? How do you lead and speak into that situation?

Scott: Well, obviously you have to do it sensitively for people who are feeling anxious — overly anxious or overly elated, right? You don’t want to shame people for being overly elated, and you don’t want to guilt people for being overly anxious. But we do, as the messengers of Jesus, want to embrace our role as helping others as well as ourselves to put all of this American politics into its proper context.

I think it’s wonderful that whenever we have a presidential election, the next season we go into is a season of Advent, which emphasizes that the government will be on Jesus’ shoulders and of the increase of his reign in government there will be no end. He is the one that’s not voted out. He is the one that’s not dethroned. He is the one that doesn’t have a term limit.

Whatever outcomes politically we might, during whatever season, be elated by, we can’t hold on too tightly to hope, because it’s only a matter of time before this leader, this administration, this philosophy is taken out of power. Or if we are so anxious and devastated, again we are talking about a temporal situation. And we are also talking about a Christian reality, which is true at all times, and that is that we are aliens and strangers. That is our identity with respect to our relationship with the world; we are aliens and strangers. Our citizenship is elsewhere.

Hebrews Chapter 11, the heroes of the faith, they are all looking ahead to a better country, it says. None of them received the promises of the good life, the flourishing world that they all dream of. None of them, it says, received the promises in their lifetime. Whenever we think that a politician is going to bring God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, we’ve lost our focus. Of course, we can celebrate leaders that amplify truth, beauty and justice in their leadership. We can always celebrate that. But always with a measuredness, because we ought not put our hope in princes and chariots, but in the name of the Lord our God.

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Share the Love

If you enjoyed the program, please rate it on iTunes and write a brief review. That will help get the word out and raise the visibility of the show.

Relevant Resources

Follow Scott Sauls on Twitter, Instagram or at ScottSauls.com.

Read his latest book, "A Gentle Answer: Our Secret Weapon in an Age of Us Against Them."

Check out "A Call to Civic Responsibility for the Health of the Nation" and add your name.

Today's Conversation is brought to you by Christian Community Credit Union.